Women take all four slots in Costa award novel shortlist

Reuters Staff

3 Min Read

LONDON (Reuters) - Women have taken all four slots on the shortlist for best novel of 2013 in the Costa Book Awards, a competition for authors who live in Britain or Ireland. The winners will be announced in January.

Kate Atkinson is shortlisted for her novel "Life After Life", the organizers of the competition said on Tuesday. She won the Book of the Year prize for her first novel, "Behind the Scenes at the Museum", in 1995, when the competition was called the Whitbread awards.

She is joined on the shortlist by the late Bernardine Bishop for "Unexpected Lessons in Love", former novel award winner Maggie O'Farrell for "Instructions for a Heatwave" and Evie Wyld for "All the Birds, Singing".

The winners of the five Costa book awards categories are announced on January 6, with each winner receiving a prize of 5,000 pounds ($8,100). The Costa Book of the Year winner is announced on January 28 and receives a prize of 30,000 pounds.

Following are the authors and books shortlisted in the other four categories: